• swarthy •

Notes: We like to occasionally run a purely English word just for fun, a word English developed on its own rather than borrowed from a Romance language like French, Italian, or Spanish. Swarthy is just such a word. It is a mysterious variant of another adjective, swart "dark, black" which is much eschewed these days. Since this is a two-syllable word ending on Y, it is compared in the traditional English way: swarthier and swarthiest. The quality of being swarthy is expressed by the noun, swarthiness. Be sure to switch the Y for I in all these forms.

In Play: Today's word is probably used most often to refer to human complexion: "Then the defense lawyer asked, 'Ms. Dimmital, if the man was, as you say, 'quite swarthy', how could you make out his face in your back yard in the middle of the night?'" It may be used, however, to refer to things other than people: "It was that swarthy time of the early evening when the sun has moved out of view but lurks just below the horizon."

Word History: This word came to Old English as sweart "black" from the same Proto-Germanic source that gave Dutch zwart and German its schwarz "black", from which Yiddish gets its shvarts. The Proto-Indo-European root of this word is swordo- "dirty, dark, black". This root emerged in Latin as sordidus "dirty", apparently based on a lost word sordus "dirt, grime". English could not resist the sordid act of blatantly copying most of this word for its own vocabulary: sordid. (The brightest spot in today's otherwise rather dark Good Word is Susan Hays, who was kind enough to suggest it.)

You hit the racial nail on the head, Luke; Gone with the Wind, and its swarthy Blacks, right? "Swarthy" probably started out innocently enough, but somewhere along the way got kidnapped by the White Folks who convertedit to code for "non-White." We (the pristine Whites among us)need look no further than our own dear old Ben Franklin for an example, albeit an odd one:

"Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps I am partial to the Complexion of my Country, for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind."

Racists will take comfort from dear old Ben's inspiring words. Too bad about those swarthy-complected Spainards, Italians, French, Russians, Swedes, and (ironically) Germans. Not to mention the "tawny" Blacks. By robbing the planet of its racial albedo the swarthy-complected races increase the risk of Global Warming. Nature's reason to be White.

And if racial baggage alone were not enough to drag poor "swarthy" to its knees, society has loaded it with sexual overtones. Think of all those bodice-ripping, swarthy lovers in pot boilers. Ladies beware!

Probably there should be a movement of some type to emancipate "swarthy" from racial and sexual bondage. But then it may be too late to free "swarthy" from the Dark Side, Luke...

I'm with you on this one, Perry. When I heard the term "street name" I also thought Pepshort was talking about what his homies called him when he was cruisin' the 'hood. Then I thought, well, Swarthmore didn't sound tuff enough for a street moniker, so maybe that really is the name of the street he lives on. Perhaps Pepshort can clear that up. If I had a street name (which, alas, I don't) I would hope it would sound tougher than the name of the street I live on (Roselane). Maybe something like "killa dude" or "Mad Max" would work. OOPS! That last one has already been taken.

Be who you are and say what you feel in your heart. Because those that matter, don't mind. And those that mind, don't matter.

Funny discussion -- good to be with folks who have good senses of humor, as well as good senses of language. I didn't give the slightest thought to 'street name' being anything other than what comes after my house address. Used in the more familiar sense, I guess my only 'homie street name' would be ... Dad